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So I spent OCI focused on the Bay Area cause I wanted to do emerging companies work. I had a few callbacks at the usual (WSGR, Cooley, F&W, etc), but nothing panned out over there. I will be going to a vault firm in NYC this summer. This firm is strong in general transactional work, but does zero emerging companies work.

Due to family/personal reasons, it looks like this may have been a blessing in disguise because I need to be in New York for the foreseeable future, so trying to get back out to the Bay is no longer the plan. That being said, I am still very much interested in emerging companies work and would like to go to a firm in the NYC area that is strong in that area. Maybe I will love my firm this summer, but what I'm really aiming for switching over after the summer so as to start out at one of these firms after graduation.

This is not a chambers ranked area, so please don't point me to chambers. In addition, please don't just say "WSGR, Cooley or F&W" because while they are the three big players in the bay, they are not necessarily the biggest players in NYC (F&W isn't even in NY). If anyone has some actual insight into what firms have the largest or the fastest growing emerging companies practice in NYC, please let me know. Silicon Alley is still growing so somebody has to be swallowing that work.

Why do you want emerging company work? If you are interested in the transactional work itself, no firm in New York can offer you what F&W, Cooley, WSGR, etc. in the Bay Area or Goodwin in Boston can offer you (top New York firms' billing rate is too high for them to maintain emerging company work). If you want to exit into a start-up (as general counsel or high level lawyer) in the Bay Area, doing securities/M&A at a NYC V5 would be better position you than doing emerging company work at F&W, Cooley, WSGR, etc. because start-ups want their top lawyers to have the similar pedigree as lawyers at their investors. The top venture capital/private equity firms are filled with lawyers who worked at NYC V5s.

Anonymous User wrote:Why do you want emerging company work? If you are interested in the transactional work itself, no firm in New York can offer you what F&W, Cooley, WSGR, etc. in the Bay Area or Goodwin in Boston can offer you (top New York firms' billing rate is too high for them to maintain emerging company work). If you want to exit into a start-up (as general counsel or high level lawyer) in the Bay Area, doing securities/M&A at a NYC V5 would be better position you than doing emerging company work at F&W, Cooley, WSGR, etc. because start-ups want their top lawyers to have the similar pedigree as lawyers at their investors. The top venture capital/private equity firms are filled with lawyers who worked at NYC V5s.

I’m interested in the type of work and the clients first and foremost, and exit options to a lesser extent. I understand the business model that WSGR/Cooley take with companies in SV, and that was one thing that was attractive to me, and maybe I’m naïve, but I refuse to believe that no firm is trying to use this model for startups in New York. Like I said, Silicon Alley is growing really fast and the startup scene is quite strong. Under traditional billing rates, you’re right, none of these companies are having their legal work done by the biggest New York firms. So what are they doing? There is no way they’re having all their legal work done out in California, so someone must be doing it for them in New York.

New York firms are already trying to break into the market in SV that is dominated by WSGR/Cooley, etc, so there is no reason to think they wouldn’t be trying to do that at home on the East Coast too. Just saying, I've gotten this response a few times: "no one does emerging company work in New York," but that is impossible. I'm less concerned with the "eliteness" of it than just the work itself.

If you want to exit into a start-up (as general counsel or high level lawyer) in the Bay Area, doing securities/M&A at a NYC V5 would be better position you than doing emerging company work at F&W, Cooley, WSGR, etc. because start-ups want their top lawyers to have the similar pedigree as lawyers at their investors. The top venture capital/private equity firms are filled with lawyers who worked at NYC V5s.

This is absolutely false. WTF.

OP, if you're looking for a good emerging company practice in NYC, look no further than Gunderson Dettmer's NYC office. They're killing it in that market, apparently, and are super busy. And they are cut from the same cloth as WSGR, Cooley, Fenwick and... Gunderson (in fact, many law students looking for an emerging companies practice in CA start and end with those firms).

I'm not sure of any other firm in NYC that does a whole lot of emerging company work. You shouldn't waste your time at an NYC V5, as it will get you no closer to working for a start-up or a VC fund (if either is a goal), so don't worry about being "V5 status."